Chatham boys knock MH out of first place

CHATHAM -- With a month to go in the regular season, the Chatham boys basketball team is playing as well as anybody in the Patroon Conference.

Friday night, the Panthers knocked Maple Hill out of a share of first place with a 56-43 victory over the Wildcats.

"It feels real good, it's the biggest win we probably have had around here in a while," Chatham coach John Thorsen said. "Its nice to put ourselves in a place where we are playing meaningful games. That was a heck of a team we played and I am real proud of my players."

The Panthers led 15-9 after one quarter, 26-15 at halftime and 36-30 after three quarters before putting the game away with a 20-13 run over the final eight minutes.

Chatham used a balanced scoring attack and a strong defensive effort in taking down the Wildcats. Keon Armstrong led the way with 16 points. Kaleb Taylor contributed 13 and Quinten Kastner had 12.

"Keon, I don't know how many blocks that he had but I thought he played fantastic on the defensive end," Thorsen said. "I just thought a lot of guys stepped up. Thomas Van Tassel stepped up, I thought he did a great job on the boards and on boxing out. I thought it was, overall, a great team defensive game. To hold that team to 43 points is an accomplishment."

While pleased with how the team is playing, Thorsen said their is still room for improvement.

"There are a lot of things we want to work on, we got to take care of the ball a little bit better," Thorsen said. "We are a little lackadaisical with some of our passes, but all in all I am really proud of our effort, I feel like if we keep working like this, good things will happen."

Nate Mannion had a strong game for Maple Hill (8-2, 10-2), finishing with 25 points.

Maple Hill travels to Stilwater for a non-league game on Monday and Chatham (6-4, 8-4) goes to Cairo-Durham on Tuesday.

The victory, along with Maple Hill's loss to Chatham, give the cats sole possession of first place in the Patroon.

"We were able to get out front, but we never did put them away," Catskill coach Doug Lampman said. "C-A has a good squad and was able to hang around. The difference was some poise down the stretch and making free throws."